7. The Unaccountable Conduct of Professor De Worms (continued)

Professor de Worms came slowly round the corner of the irregular
alley behind him, his unnatural form outlined against a lonely
gas-lamp, irresistibly recalling that very imaginative figure in
the nursery rhymes, "the crooked man who went a crooked mile." He
really looked as if he had been twisted out of shape by the
tortuous streets he had been threading. He came nearer and nearer,
the lamplight shining on his lifted spectacles, his lifted,
patient face. Syme waited for him as St. George waited for the
dragon, as a man waits for a final explanation or for death. And
the old Professor came right up to him and passed him like a total
stranger, without even a blink of his mournful eyelids.

There was something in this silent and unexpected innocence that
left Syme in a final fury. The man's colourless face and manner
seemed to assert that the whole following had been an accident.
Syme was galvanised with an energy that was something between
bitterness and a burst of boyish derision. He made a wild gesture
as if to knock the old man's hat off, called out something like
"Catch me if you can," and went racing away across the white, open
Circus. Concealment was impossible now; and looking back over his
shoulder, he could see the black figure of the old gentleman coming
after him with long, swinging strides like a man winning a mile
race. But the head upon that bounding body was still pale, grave
and professional, like the head of a lecturer upon the body of a
harlequin.

This outrageous chase sped across Ludgate Circus, up Ludgate Hill,
round St. Paul's Cathedral, along Cheapside, Syme remembering all
the nightmares he had ever known. Then Syme broke away towards the
river, and ended almost down by the docks. He saw the yellow panes
of a low, lighted public-house, flung himself into it and ordered
beer. It was a foul tavern, sprinkled with foreign sailors, a
place where opium might be smoked or knives drawn.

A moment later Professor de Worms entered the place, sat down
carefully, and asked for a glass of milk.